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104

AFFAIRS OF TRANSYLVANIA.

[Book V.

CHAPTER IV.

WE shall now advert to the affairs of the Austrian dominions and of the eastern nations of Europe.

The comparative feebleness into which the Turkish Empire was sunk, as well as its war with Venice, which had been going on since 1645,' had for many years relieved Austria from all apprehension of attack from that quarter; but in 1656 the appointment of Mahomet Köprili as Grand Vizier infused more vigour into the counsels of the Porte. The youthful Sultan, Mahomet IV., and the Sultana Valide, allowed Köprili an almost unlimited power; and though that remarkable man was more than seventy years old, and had not performed during his long life any memorable action, yet he discharged his high office during the five years that he held it with distinguished ability and success, and at his death transmitted his power to his son. Under the administration of Mahomet Köprili, the Turks began again to interfere in the affairs of Transylvania (1658). The Voyvode, George Ragotski II., their tributary, having shown symptoms of insubordination, the Porte resolved to set up Barcsai, a creature of its own, in his place, and to increase the yearly tribute from 15,000 ducats to 40,000. Ragotski, after resisting a year or two, was defeated by the Turks in a battle near Klausenburg, in May 1660, and received a wound of which he died. In the following August the Turks captured Great Waradin, one of the strongest fortresses on the borders of Hungary and Transylvania.

The Cabinet of Vienna, though alarmed by the progress of the Turkish arms, was unwilling to break with the Porte, and had even commanded the Hungarian Count Zrinyi to desist from the attempts at resistance which he had made on his own account. But the progress of events at length compelled the Emperor Leopold to take a direct part in the war. Peter Kemeni having been elected Voyvode of Transylvania under the imperial auspices, and having murdered Barcsai, the protégé of the Porte, the latter caused Michael Apafy to be elected in his place. The Viennese Cabinet, after some vain attempts at negociation, despatched 1 See Vol. II. p. 621. j

CHAP. IV.]

THE TURKS INVADE HUNGARY.

105

some forces under Montecuculi and Count Stahremberg into Hungary (1661), but with strict orders not to attack the Turks; and all that Montecuculi effected was to supply Kemeni, who had shut himself up in Klausenburg, with troops and provisions. In the ensuing winter Kemeni made an attempt to seize Apafy at Mediasch; but the Turks having come to Apafy's aid, defeated Kemeni and killed him in his flight.2

Mahomet Köprili had expired November 1st 1661, and was succeeded in his high office by his son Achmet, then thirty years of age. This transmission of power from father to son was a thing unheard of in the Turkish annals, and seemed to recall the reign of the Mayors of the Palace in France during the Merovingian dynasty. The administration of Mahomet Köprili had revived in a remarkable degree the strength of the Ottoman Empire: he had firmly established his power in the Seraglio, and by measures of great severity had reduced the rebellious Sipahis and Janissaries to order and obedience. From his first accession to office, Achmet Köprili was resolved on a war with the Emperor; but in order to make the requisite preparations, he encouraged the attempts of the Imperial Cabinet at negociation. Leopold refused to recognise Apafy, the creature of the Porte, as Voyvode of Transylvania, who had abandoned great part of that province to the Turks, and had promised to assist them against the Emperor; but at the same time the Imperial Cabinet, in the vain hope of solving the question by diplomacy, refused all active assistance to Kemeni's brother Peter. Even in the spring of 1663, when Achmet Köprili was pressing forward with a vast army to Buda, the imperial plenipotentiaries were seeking to arrest his march by new negociations; but the terms he proposed were too arrogant and insulting to digest. He demanded an indemnity of 2,000,000 florins for the expense of arming, the evacuation of several fortresses, the renewal of the ancient tribute abolished by the Peace of Sitvatorok, and free passage for the Turkish troops into Dalmatia and other places belonging to the Venetians.

The Cabinet of Vienna began at last to perceive the fatal error it had committed in not providing the means of resistance. To the Turkish army of 200,000 men Montecuculi could oppose but a very small force. The Hungarians themselves could not agree as to the means of defence. The Protestant part of that people were even in favour of the Turks, who treated them with politic consideration; while the Imperial Court, under the influence of the

2 The chief sources for these affairs are Engel, Gesch. des Ungarischen Reichs;

Katona, Hist. Hungariæ Ducum; Mém. de
Montecuculi; Wagner, Hist. Leopoldi.

106

BATTLE OF ST. GOTHARD.

[Book V. Jesuits, displayed towards them nothing but intolerance. Count Forgacz, commandant of Neuhaüsel, who had marched out to oppose the Turks, was defeated by them at Barkan, or Parkany; and though he contrived to defend Neuhaüsel for six weeks, he was at length. compelled to surrender it by capitulation (September 24th 1663).

The fall of Neuhaüsel was followed by that of several other fortresses, and it was the common opinion that in the following spring Köprili would appear before Vienna. In spite of all Montecuculi's exertions, a body of 25,000 Turks and Tartars crossed the Waag into Moravia, threatened Nikolsburg, Brünn, and Rabensburg, and penetrated almost to Olmütz, committing in their progress the most horrible barbarities. It was even with some difficulty that Montecuculi succeeded in defending Pressburg. Meanwhile a Diet had assembled at Ratisbon; and in December the Emperor went thither in person, to reanimate their deliberations, and urge them to provide an adequate defence against so urgent a danger. The Diet voted on the part of the Empire an army of 42,000 foot and 14,000 horse, to be commanded by the Margrave Leopold William of Baden; which, added to the troops of the Austrian hereditary dominions, constituted a force of more than 80,000 men. Louis XIV. supplied from the army of Italy 6000 men under Count Saligni, as the contingent for Alsace; and Sweden sent 3500 men, besides its quota for the states it held in Germany. The Pope, and the Italian princes and republics, also furnished the Emperor with liberal contributions in money.

Montecuculi was thus enabled to take the field in 1664 with more prospect of success; and though the first operations of the campaign were in favour of the Turks, he at length arrested their progress by the memorable battle near St. Gothard (August 1st), a Cistercian convent on the borders of Hungary and Styria. Montecuculi having given the word "Death or victory," the Christians, contrary to their usual practice, charged without waiting to be attacked; the Turks were routed and thrown into a disorderly flight, in which more than 10,000 of them were slain or drowned in the Raab.3 But instead of pursuing this advantage, which seemed to open the road to the most extensive conquests, the Imperial Cabinet surprised all Europe by seizing the occasion to make peace with the Porte. On August 10th, only a few days after the battle of St. Gothard, a treaty was concluded at Vasvar for a twenty years' truce. The Emperor abandoned to the Turks all their conquests, which included the fortresses of Great Waradin and Neuhaüsel; he withdrew his support from the party of 3 • Katona, t. xxxiii. p. 518 sqq.; Montecuculi, Mémoires, liv. iii. p. 445 sqq.

CHAP. IV.]

TREATY OF VASVAR.

107

Ragotski and Kemeni, thus abandoning Transylvania to Apafy, the nominee of the Porte; and he made the Sultan a present-in other words, paid him a tribute-of 200,000 florins.4

This treaty caused universal dissatisfaction. The Germans complained of the Turks being established at Neuhausel; a place, they said, which might be seen from the walls of Vienna. The Hungarians exclaimed that their privileges had been violated by the conclusion of the treaty without their knowledge and participation. The Transylvanians said that by the abandonment of Waradin, the Turks would be enabled to overrun the whole of their country. Apafy alone was content, who remained in possession of Transylvania on condition of paying the ancient tribute. Yet disgraceful and disadvantageous as this treaty undoubtedly was, Leopold seems to have had some cogent reasons for concluding it. Montecuculi's army was still far inferior to that of the Turks; the Austrian exchequer was empty, nor could the continuance of the services of the contingents voted by the Diet be reckoned upon. Deep jealousies existed between the German and Hungarian commanders, and the latter, who suspected the House of Austria of a project for the entire subjection of Hungary, impeded rather than assisted the operations against the Turks. It may be, too, that Leopold wished to rid himself of the services of the French troops, who had awakened his jealousy by carrying off a large portion of the glory of the battle of St. Gothard.

The war which they had been waging so many years with Venice was on the side of the Turks a motive for concluding the truce of Vasvar; but its details are uninteresting, and we therefore forbear to relate them. The siege of Candia, the capital of the island of that name, is, however, one of the most remarkable in history, having lasted from May 1667 till September 1669. After an attempt to relieve it with a large French force under the Duke de Navailles had failed, the garrison was compelled to capitulate, September 6th, and was allowed to march out with all the honours of war, followed by nearly the whole population; two priests, a woman, and three Jews alone remaining behind. A peace was now concluded between Venice and the Porte, and terminated a war in which the Venetians are said to have lost 30,000 men, and the Turks upwards of 118,000.5

Meanwhile, in Hungary, the discontent caused by the oppressive government and the religious persecutions of the Austrian Cabinet had gone on increasing. In 1668 a conspiracy had been formed war is Valiero, Storia della Guerra di Candia.

The treaty is in Katona, t. xxxiii. p. 565 sqq.; and Dumont, t. vi. pt. iii. p. 23. One of the chief authorities for this

108

VIENNA BESIEGED BY THE TURKS.

[Book V. against Leopold by Counts Nadasdy, Zrinyi, Frangipani, and other Hungarian leaders, which, however, was discovered and frustrated; and it was not till 1678, when the young Count Emmerich Tekeli placed himself at the head of the malcontents, that these disturbances assumed any formidable importance. Tekeli, who possessed much military talent, and was an uncompromising enemy of the House of Austria, having entered Upper Hungary with 12,000 men, defeated the imperial forces, captured several towns, occupied the whole district of the Carpathian mountains, and compelled the Austrian generals, Counts Wurmb and Leslie, to accept the truce which he offered. The insurgents were encouraged by the Porte, and after the conclusion of the Turkish and Russian war in 1681, Kara Mustapha, who was now Grand Vizier, determined to assist them openly. In spite of the liberal offers made to Tekeli by the Emperor, that leader entered into a formal treaty with the Porte, and, in conjunction with the Turks, effected several conquests. Leopold now despatched a splendid embassy to Constantinople in the hope of renewing the treaty of Vasvar, but without avail; the Turks only increased their demands." In the spring of 1683 Sultan Mahomet marched forth from his capital with a large army, which at Belgrade he transferred to the 'command of Kara Mustapha. Tekeli formed a junction. with the Turks at Essek, and the united armies began their march to Vienna. In vain did Ibrahim, the experienced Pasha of Buda, endeavour to persuade Kara Mustapha first of all to subdue the surrounding country, and to postpone till the following year the attack upon Vienna; his advice was scornfully rejected, and, indeed, the audacity of the Grand Vizier seemed justified by the little resistance he had met with.

At the approach of the Turks the Viennese were seized with a terror amounting almost to despair. Little preparation had been made for defence; 70,000 men was all the force that could be opposed to the Turkish army of 200,000; and a great part even of that number was required to defend the frontier fortresses. On July 7th, when news arrived of the defeat of the Austrian forces at Petronell, Leopold and his court quitted Vienna for Linz and Passau. His departure was the signal for an almost universal flight; 60,000 persons are said to have hurried from Vienna in a single day. Leopold had intrusted the defence of his capital, which he had thus disgracefully abandoned, to Count Stahremberg, in whom it found an able and valiant defender.

It was fortunate for the Emperor, who could get but little aid See for these occurrences Katona, t. xxxiv.

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